So what do you guys think? I'm not sure, but I think the red leaves in the spider set are new elements. Also, I'm pretty sure those green glasses in the elf prison set are new. I'm not sure what I think about those wargs yet, it really depends on the printing.

I was interested to see they're reusing the PoP dagger of time as an Elf weapon (the mirkwood set), my CMF elf army has been doing this for a while! They're is a slight air of 'prelim' pictures to some of these, mainly the warg set with the weird chap on the white warg. I haven't read the book since I was a kid so I may be corrected on who is actually is... Wearing a tan ninjago armour piece as well.

As someone mentioned, it looks like the leaves are in dark red/or a brown in the mirkwood set. Though in reality, the only set I'm likely to get is Bilbo/Gollum, having not got Gollum yet from the LOTR stuff.

The more I see them the more I am concerned about a couple things:1. The Warg escape in the trees should include a giant eagle?2. Will Beorn appear in a later set?3. Why are Legolas and Tauriel helping the Dwarves escape the spiders? Where is Bilbo, that was his big moment?4. No bother with burglary? No Troll Camp?

I am hoping for a wave 2 that fixes these "issues" us long-time Hobbit fans might have.

There is no life I know to compare with pure imagination. Living there, you'll be free if you truly wish to be. -Willy Wonka, 1971-

They look good. I don't think they have the same 'must have' aura that the LOTR wave had but I wouldn't rite them off either. I think the set design is a bit inconsistent, especially the Warg set. Eitherway, i'm game for them, i'll be buying most if not all.

I'm pretty excited by these sets as well, but was hoping for some better photos before commenting. IMO it's fair game to comment on these here, though, since this is promotional material that was given out at a Toys R Us, so I call that an official release.

Spoilers follow, though I suppose you've already been spoiled if you're reading this.

Some thoughts:-Originally it seemed from various clues that movie 1 would end around the point of the barrel ride. Now it seems that after they made the decision to make three movies that they will cut movie 1 off somewhere between the warg attack and the spiders. This may be as a cliff-hanger, e.g. with the dwarves up the trees, or maybe at a resting spot like Beorn's house.-I see three types of orcs (four if you count the Goblin King), similar to the different figs we got for the Moria orcs vs the Uruk Hai of Isengard. Presumably we'll get some different breakdown of various orc clans or even sub-species in the movies.-On Legolas and Tauriel fighting the spiders: Yes, the movies will have some significant changes from the books. Part of this will be the expansion of hints from the books about the attack of the White Council on the Necromancer (who they find to be Sauron). In the Hobbit book this is simply an excuse for Gandalf to disappear from the company from the point they meet Beorn until he comes back at the Mountain, and Tolkien refers to it as Gandalf's business 'away down south'. It's only at the Council of Elrond and in the appendices to the Lord of the Rings (and more in some of the Unfinished Tales) that we find out what was going on. Anyway, all indications are that there will be a secondary story line where we see more of this. In addition, there will be changes that I will just try to be generous and say come as a result of making a more movie-friendly story. Think of this in the terms that a non-book audience would be expecting: Bilbo and company are going to be traveling through Mirkwood and will meet up with elves there. Hey, we already know about Legolas, one of those Mirkwood elves. Given that we know from the Lord of the Rings movies that elves are an extremely long-lived bunch, and that Legolas is the son of the king of the Mirkwood elves, he's surely going to be there. Guys know Legolas as a kick-butt fighter. Girls think he's dreamy (here I'm ducking to avoid the bricks that Blue and Plums are lobbing at me). So he's SURELY going to have a major role.Given all that, Jackson is pretty much painted into a corner by the expectations of a movie audience to give Legolas some major screen time, not just hanging out at the elvish picnic that Thorin interrupts. Yes, he'll surely be doing some of his major sled-surfing, Mumak-climbing studly fighting in movie 3 (or, I suppose, the elves of Mirkwood could send a contingent along to the Battle of Dol Guldur suggested above, and he could be in that), but once you've got Orlando Bloom on board for the earlier movies you're going to have to give him some action.That said, as you implied, Bilbo's fight against the spiders is one of the key moments in his character development, so I hope that the elf-spider fighting (which, btw, is also suggested by some other movie stills that have been released as part of promotional material) does not completely supplant the hobbit-spider fighting.-Back to other thoughts, I'm also pretty excited by finally seeing the leaf element in fall colors. I hope we see more of that from LEGO. -While I'm not thrilled about the design of the Goblin King battle set, it looks like an awesome parts pack for a castle builder - lots of greys and browns, slopes, weapons, etc. The Barrel Escape set is another good parts pack for brown and tan and castle-relevant pieces.

Thanks for sharing. Only picked up The Hobbit about a month or so ago so I need to get reading! Fortunately I have 30 pages left in my current book (A Clash of Kings). I can't say I can't be too critical of anything as I don't know the story but I reckon the sets look to be something you'd expect that they'd release. I must admit I don't have any LotR yet as I'm concentrating on other stuff but I should probably start before I miss them or get swamped with too much to get, too little time and not enough funds!

Thanks for the link! Some random off-the-cuff thoughts: I like the wargs as molded figs rather than brickbuilt, though the wolfish one more than the other. None of the sets is all that impressive by itself, except perhaps Bag's End, but I will probably buy several of the sets for parts. Plus it is great we will get all thirteen dwarves. I am excited for this release, but the first-wave of LOTR was superior.